Silence amid Chaos: Jason Steele aboard the Normandy
by Wrecksauce
Summary: As the saying goes: Two Assassins are better than one. Jason Steele joins the Normandy, bringing his dry humor and dark secrets along for the ride. The collectors might be a big a step up from assassinating slave rings though. OC character, meaning that a few extra missions are thrown in the mix. Mainly follows Mass effect two story line. Rated T for violence.
1. Chapter 1- Found you!

It was not very often that you could find a smuggling ring on Illium, in fact it was rare to find any smuggling at all, let alone a ring of it. But, just like everywhere else, if you went to the right places, or signed the wrong contracts, you could find yourself in the middle of one. One of the 'right' places to find such a smuggling ring was underneath Nos Astra space port, 'underneath' being the cellar circuit that the security forces had never been able to find. Several rings made their homes down here, the dingy light was perfect for hiding drugs, money, weapons, eezo, and sometimes even people.

This is what was known as 'falling off the grid' to the residents and traders in Nos Astra, and it was only really dangerous if you fell off it, rather than stepping off it voluntarily. The smuggling ring underneath the Barria Frontiers office had all stepped off voluntarily, although their motives were often completely different. The ring was made up mostly of Salarian and Human delinquents who couldn't quite make it on the Citadel, there was one Turian, who did most of their 'protection services'.

The group was known to the locals as 'two-oh-six', largely because that was the name they were given by the security forces. The members had all come from other rings, and had all specialized in something before taking to smuggling, what was more important was what they smuggled. Two-Oh-Six's trade was in Slaves, they got them off a Batarian ship waiting in orbit, and then used Nos-Astra's relaxed laws to sell them on, the slaves never tried to run, anything was better than slavers.

It was this attitude to smuggling that made the group infamous, any officer worth their salt could tell straight away when a slave was a Two-Oh-Six slave, because they had been broken to the point of insanity by the slavers beforehand. At present, the whole ring was sat in their latest hideaway, looking over the latest inventory that had come through to them from the slavers.

"It's just as bad as the last one" one of the humans exclaimed, tossing the data pad to the Turian, who gave it a more appraising look. "If they keep sending us this crap we need to find another supplier, people will stop buying from us!" The Turian was almost inclined to agree with his colleague, the batch they were getting was all useless, none of them had any technical expertise and there was nothing other than Human farmers.

"Well" said one of the Salarians, "maybe we could start shifting something else on the side…"

"Like what?" the same Human snapped, the Salarian narrowed his eyes.

"Use your brain, Grant! Weapons, drugs, money, all three at once!"

"But our trade is in slaves, we'd never be competitive" said one of the other Humans scattered around the room.

"Yeah, what he said" the first Human crossed his arms and glared at the Salarian.

"But…" the salarian sighed and rubbed the sides of his head, "what's the point? You're all too stubborn". The Turian huffed, he could understand the Human's frustrations, they hadn't had a decent shipment in months.

"Hey, maybe we could…" all eyes in the room turned to the other Salarian, who faltered when the attention was fixed on him.

"Maybe be we could…what?" Asked the Human, folding his arms and glaring at the offending Salarian.

"There was a Human in the square earlier, talking to someone about selling tainted Eezo" the Salarian replied, gulping when the Human didn't take his eyes of him.

"Now there's one I haven't considered…" the human said eventually, rubbing his chin, "do you know where we could get a supply?"

"Maybe" came the reply, "there's a vendor on the main trade floor, I think he sells it on the quiet" the Salarian stood up and paced across the room. "I can't remember his name, but I heard it from one of the Synthetic insights people when we sold that Quarian" the Turian huffed a laugh at the memory, they hadn't even beaten the Girl up, she just went quietly over to their broker and waited to be sold on.

"See what you can find" said the Human, standing up and going towards the door. "I'm going to check on that weapons shipment, shouldn't take long. Aresh, you're in charge till I get back" and with that the two of them left the room.

* * *

While this was going on inside the hideaway, a hooded man was making his way through the cellars. The hood was pulled low over his face, hiding everything away from view, apart from the stern line his mouth was in. As he walked through the narrow passage ways he could hear all the different conversations going on behind the doors, some of them less appealing than others. They weren't the conversations he wanted to hear though, he was looking for a specific group.

He'd planted a conversation about the man selling tainted Eezo in the market to try and pinpoint the hideout Two-oh-Six was using. He'd been chasing them for months, but he could never take them out because of the damn Turian, it was like the asshole could see things before they happened or something. Every time he tried something, the Turian was already there waiting, the hooded man had nearly been caught twice, and he didn't plan on getting caught again. If he found them down here he would have the element of surprise, and he wouldn't have to chase them anymore. He continued down the hallway, using the sound enhancers in his ears to pick up snippets of conversation from the different rooms.

"I can't remember his name, but I heard it from the Synthetic insights people when we sold the Quarian", and bingo. At this point it would be appropriate to point out that the hooded man was an Assassin, he carried two Silenced Carnifex handcanons and a various array of throw-able implements. His hooded jacket covered a chest-plate and armored fore-arm, the only parts of him which had any armor at all, he did not make a habit of getting shot.

"I'm going to check that weapons shipment" came a voice from behind the door, the Assassin quickly removed the ear pieces and disappeared into the shadows around the corner. Within seconds the door swung open, bouncing as it impacted the wall, the doors down here were all on hinges so they didn't need power to function. Two pairs of footsteps began echoing down the hall, and when they were starting to fade the Assassin began to follow them. There was a Human and a Salarian, both were armed with Kishok harpoon rifles, neither of them wore armor. The Assassin increased his pace so he would catch up, it would take a minute or two to get right behind them, but these tunnels were long, which left him with more than enough time. He continued to trail the pair, never losing sight of them for more than a few seconds, they were strolling though, and not alert.

The Assassin was within striking range now, he loosened one of the throwing axes on his belt, picking his pace up even further. Then he was right behind them, within three yards, his silent footfalls meant that they hadn't heard him, perfect. He slowly drew the axe, weighing it in his right hand, then he lifted his arm back and threw the axe ever so casually into the back of the Human's head, the man screamed and crumpled to the floor. Meanwhile the Assassin had pounced on the Salarian, pinning him to a wall with one arm while holding one of his Pistols in his free hand.

"Hello there" the Assassin snarled, he could feel the Salarian shaking underneath his arm. "Not so untouchable now, it would seem"

"P-p-please, don't…" the Salarian stuttered out, the Assassin merely pressed down on his neck a little harder.

"Where do you get the slaves?" he asked, raising the Salarian's head with his gun so he could look the coward in the eye.

"I d-don't kn-know" the Salarian was almost choking now, there was so little breath left flowing through his air pipe.

"Alright then, who do you get them from" the Assassin asked, keeping his voice level and intimidating.

"Some Batarians…aggh…they keep them in…" the Salarian forced up a cough "…in orbit until we go and get them" there followed another loud bout of coughing.

"Thank you" the Assassin allowed his stern expression to drop to a frown. Then he whipped his arm across the Salarian's neck, tearing his wind pipe to shreds. The former Salarian dropped to the floor, still gargling. The Assassin then stepped across to the Human he'd killed first and withdrew his axe from the man's head, wiping it clean on the dead man's shirt sleeve, and stuck it back into its holster which sat on his waist. Now he had to deal with the rest of them, his contract had stated that all their operations needed to be stopped, and people like this will always find a way to get back on their feet again.

The Assassin went back towards the door the men had come out of again, stepping lightly so he did not alarm the wrong people. As he drew up to the door, pistol in hand, he could hear the rest of the smugglers talking, he never paused to hear what it was about though. He pushed the door open, walking in as if he belonged there, the men did not look up from the conversation. The Assassin then lifted his pistol, aimed it squarely at the Turian's eye, and then shot. As what was once the Turian's eye was obliterated, and the bullet continued out the back of his skull. The room seemed to stop moving, shock and panic was a lethal combination for someone who was getting attacked.

The Assassin capitalized on this, firing two more shots into the heads of the Humans sitting directly in front of him. Then he spun underneath the dagger of the other Salarian, who'd been trying to attack from behind, and quickly snapped his assailant's neck before pushing his suffocating victim headlong into the last remaining Human. As the man struggled underneath his now dead colleague, the Assassin made his way over to him, leveled his pistol to the man's head, and shot him through his open mouth, instant kill.

Then he turned to survey the room, dead bodies aside it almost looked as if nothing had happened. The table they'd all been sitting around was covered in data-pads and there were no chairs to knock over, it was clean. The Assassin nodded, turned and exited the room, closing the door behind him, someone would find the bodies one day, whether they'd still be identifiable would be another matter. As he strolled down the corridors the Assassin straightened out his sleeves and brushed the dirt and dust of his jacket. If he didn't look normal on the streets of Nos-Astra people would notice him, standing out was not part of his profession.

The entrance to the underground cellar network was hidden behind a dumpster near the trade floor, the Assassin snuck out from behind it and slowly slid it back into place. Then, feeling a little better to be out of the tunnels, he set off towards his apartment. The walk back was fairly pleasant, chattering couples, arguing merchants, silent watchers, it was all the way it should be. He approached his apartment and entered the entry code into the door, which flashed from red to green, once inside he disabled the traps which lined the corridor before moving further into the rooms.

* * *

The following day brought no new tasks, assignments, or contracts which left the day free for Jason Steele, our Assassin, to relax. It felt to him like the first time in years, even though it had been a few months, he'd been chasing that smuggling ring for two months alone, and before that he was tracking down a businessman who'd been running a bogus charity collection to pay for his gambling addiction. Jason wandered across the living room and flicked on the large TV screen fixed into the wall, being an Assassin had a massive pay off, after all.

He flicked on the news, just to see if anything was going on worth his attention. And oh boy, did it catch his attention. The Collectors had attacked Horizon, one of Humanity's colonies near the Terminus systems, very few of the colonists were left. He was instantly worried, his mother and father lived on Horizon, they had no idea what kind of work he did but he made a point to send a message their way every now and again. And then he was mad, seething, angry at the collectors, who were they to abduct his parents, if he ever saw one...well it wouldn't be a pretty sight. What caught his attention further was the man who was yammering on about Commander Shepard, the woman who had died two years prior to this. The man who talked about Shepard was blaming the Alliance for the attack, saying their presence drew attention to them. Jason was with the Alliance, once, a Sergeant in the special forces. One night he'd taken the wrong turn down a back alley and bam, he was dishonorably discharged. He didn't blame the Alliance, he knew it was the only thing they could do, and he had little evidence to support the truth. If he could rewind time though, he expected he would still be in the Marines.

'This galaxy just gets weirder and weirder', Jason thought to himself. He strode across the room and turned the TV off, feeling that the news would only make him less relaxed than he wanted to be. Instead he went into the hallway, and opened the door into the bathroom, once inside he went over to the shower unit at the back and pulled on the shower head. Instead of him and his clothes getting completely drenched, the wall at the back of the shower slid back to reveal the room he kept all of his toys in.

He called them toys, however in this room was possibly the most expansive range of firearms, explosives, and other more creative weapons in the whole of Nos Astra. On the table at the end of the room sat his prized possession, a Black Widow sniper rifle, he'd stolen it whilst on his second ever contract. The man he'd stolen it from had more money than sense, obviously, as he bought a rifle but not one single intruder alarm. Jason picked the gun up, weighed it in his arms and checked the scope, dead center as always, he had only used it once.

He set the rifle down on the table and moved across the room towards his armor, the three pieces he had were laid neatly out in a line, polished and without cracks. It was part of a hard suit he'd taken from a corrupt security officer on Earth, it was that contract which made him move to Illium. It was near impossible for the Alliance to track him down here, and even if they did they would have trouble getting within fifty miles of him before he caught on to it. He made a habit of planning escape routes, making sure that there was at least one open for any given situation, thankfully he hadn't needed to use them yet.

* * *

Shepard was in a rush, generally as things went she was always in a rush, but today was different. The Normandy had docked on Illium a few hours before, three of the dossiers Shepard had were for people on the Asari trading world. The Assassin, Thane Krios, was proving difficult for Shepard and Liara to find. The Justicar, Samara, was already aboard and meditating in the observation deck. That left one more, the 'second Assassin', as Jacob begrudgingly muttered whenever the subject was brought up.

They knew the Assassin's name was Jason Steele, that hadn't been difficult to find out, Liara had dealt with him before. They also knew that this Assassin had gone off-world mere minutes before they arrived, what they did not know was where he had gone. Liara had pointed them in the direction of a Batarian slaver ship which was known to offload slaves into Illium's black market. According to Liara, a few rings on Illlium had gone quiet recently, and their Assassin was a prime suspect for the murders.

Shepard was making her way through the CIC, in full armor, as the Normandy approached its destination. The Cerberus crew were rushing around like she was, all trying to file different reports to engineering, the captain, the pilot, they went about this task with effortless, if slightly hurried, efficiency. Shepard made her way up the 'neck' of the ship, her metal boots clanging on the metal floor, causing some crew members to turn their heads. Joker was moving their ship in a way which would make it parallel to the larger Pirate ship, and as Shepard drew level with the pilot's seat she could see why.

Joker was trying to get a better look at the gaping hole in the ship's side, flames were billowing out of it in what looked like a fuel fire. Shepard glanced sideways at the helmsman, who had his head rested on his knuckles.

"Shepard" EDI spoke first, the AI was good at that, "it appears that whoever caused this breach is still inside, as it was their shuttle which made the hole". Shepard turned and looked again, eyebrow raised, she could see it now, the blackened outline of a Kodiak was visible in the flames.

"We can board through that, if our Assassin is still on board we need to give him a ride out of here" Shepard said as she walked back towards the airlock, Garrus had been standing behind her the entire time. Or what used to be Garrus, Shepard remembered with a pang of sorrow, the Turian was still out of sorts.

"Walking into a fiery hell?" he said, the humor was there, just…darkened and completely un-Garrus.

"Pretty much, yeah" Shepard replied, sending a nod to Mordin who was approaching up the gangway. The Airlock slid open to admit them and the three stood inside as it whirred away. When the door to the outside opened the damage to the pirate ship looked far worse, it might just have been because they were close up, but the fire seemed to be larger from here. Shepard was the first out, as it should have been, she brought her Avenger up and swept the surroundings. Garrus came down behind her, followed by Mordin, the Salarian was looking the ship over with a calculating eye.

"Should hurry" he said after a second of hyper-fast thought, "fire reaching fuel cells likely to be problematic", Garrus grunted his agreement.

"Understood, let's make this quick" Shepard concluded, she swept her rifle around and began making her way down the closest corridor. The first thing that struck her was the dingy interior, the lights on the wall were dim to nothing, hardly giving out any light at all. There were areas in the vacuum of space with more light with more light than this. The three man squad continued to make their way down the corridor for a few minutes, sweeping every corner, there were a few empty rooms about, but none of them showed any signs of struggle. They were just empty, like every other aspect of the ship.

It was when they reached the second half of the ship that they saw their first inhabitants, or rather what used to be. There were two Batarian pirates slumped against the same wall of the corridor, they looked like they'd been taken by surprise, which was stunning considering the amount of noise a shuttle crash would have made. Mordin stooped to examine the one closer to them, Omni-tool lighting up the corridor more than the lights themselves.

"Wound to the back of the head, maybe an axe, impossible to be certain" he shifted his attention to the other batarian. "This one…appears to have been strangled. Windpipe crushed" the Salarian made a thoughtful noise.

"Sounds like they were surprised" Garrus mused, "that can't be right, they must have been on high alert".

"I agree" Shepard added "it's not right".

"Possible they were approached from behind while scanning area" Mordin piped up, rising to his full height again. "Assassin could have been waiting for them in that doorway" he pointed out the shadowed alcove a few meters away.

"Maybe, let's keep moving" Shepard said as she began to walk towards the end of the corridor. There was no denying that the Assassin had come through this way, bodies were scattered all over this section of the corridor, all of them carrying similar wounds. What was interesting was the lack of bullet holes in the walls, the Batarians all had guns, but they had never drawn them. What this Assassin appeared to be was clean and very efficient.

As the corridor reached its end it started branching out in different directions, all of the branches as dark and dingy as the one before it. Shepard decided to just follow the bodies, all of which were leading in the same general direction.

"I guess he must have gone to the cockpit" Garrus said, "it should be a little further down this corridor". With a nod Shepard followed his directions, the corridor was lined with some kind of padding which was so old and neglected that it was peeling off the walls. There weren't as many Batarians down here, those who were had better equipment, and this time it looked as if they had put up a fight. One of the doors leading into a storage compartment was covered in bullet holes, and the walls leading away from that door had a trail of similar holes in them.

"I guess that's where he killed them" Garrus was pointing at the end of the trail.

"He's quick, I'll give him that" Shepard added, the last Batarian was at the end of the corridor. This one was pinned to the wall by some kind of axe, the handle was sticking out of the Batarian's neck and the blade was pinning said Batarian to the wall. It made for a grisly scene, Shepard had to look away, and it made her more cautious about what was behind the door. She made a hand signal for the other two to take up positions on either side of the door, when she was satisfied she opened it herself.

The room beyond was silent, save for the thrumming of the engines, the pilots must have been involved in the struggle outside as there was nobody in here. Garrus moved in behind Shepard, his predator eyes moving around the room in sync with the barrel of his gun. Mordin came in last, holding his Phalanx in one hand while his Omni-tool sat ready on his other. The professor looked a lot more calm than his counterparts, possibly because he was still playing the 'harmless Salarian doctor' routine, Shepard knew he was anything but.

"Clear" Garrus said eventually, Shepard released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"Pilots absent, maybe taken prisoner" Mordin thought out loud.

"Or killed outside" Garrus countered, checking some of the diagnostic readouts.

"Unlikely, Batarian pilots generally specialists" Mordin continued "rarely ever seen one fight, then again, not much experience with Batarian pilots" the doctor shrugged and walked back outside. Shepard turned to look at Garrus, who also shrugged and made his way outside, which left Shepard alone in the room. She scanned it one last time, and then left also, leaving the room abandoned once more.

Outside the cockpit Mordin was examining one of the Batarians, when Shepard approached him he looked up.

"Shot in the back" he explained, standing up. Shepard nodded, which was all she seemed to do when talking to Mordin, and lead the way towards the cargo hold. This was the last place she would expect to find this Assassin, maybe he had a consciousness. As they wound their way through the ship Shepard began to notice differences in the air, it was even less bright down here, and also it was more humid, and smelled of dead things. She turned the Olfactory sensors on her breather helmet off, making the exploration all the more enjoyable.

When they found the cargo hold, the sight that greeted Shepard was enough to make her gag. It was obvious that the Slavers had made their final stand here, but not before slaughtering all of the slaves. Garrus' eyes seemed to have glazed over, he looked on with some kind of morbid resignation, while Mordin narrowed his eyes at the scene.

"What the hell…" Shepard said eventually, taking a step into the room.

"Is that?" Garrus finished for her, his glazed look fading.

"That, Commander Shepard, is what happened to an innocent colony near the Terminus systems" said an unknown voice. Shepard went for her Pistol straight away, not even thinking about it, Garrus wasn't far behind her. The voice seemed to echo through the room, making it impossible to pinpoint the source. "It isn't just the collectors making a name for themselves out there, you know".

"Show yourself!" Shepard ordered, leveling her pistol at one particular spot in the room, the furthest corner of the room.

"Alright then, try not to shoot me" came the voice. Shepard scanned the room again, putting N7 observational training to good use. What she didn't hear was the soft thud of two feet hitting the floor, not three feet from where she stood. "Surprise", she span around in time with Garrus as the source of the voice spoke right into their ears. The Assassin seemed to shift his position a little when he had guns pointed at him, not quite defensive but not quite aggressive.

"Are you Jason Steele?" Shepard asked, keeping her pistol level as the Assassin raised his hands defensively.

"At your service" Jason replied dryly, he looked about the room with a wrinkled nose. "I assume you're here to recruit me for this collector purge of yours?"

"Yeah" Shepard put the pistol away now, motioning for Garrus to do the same. "We need your expertise, this is a high risk operation" she said, watching Jason's face very carefully.

"I see, judging by the tone of your voice you expect this to be a one way trip, correct?" Jason turned to face her again, eyebrow raised. Shepard stared blankly at him, not quite knowing what to say.

"That's what we've been told" Garrus answered for her, "You're not going to want paying, are you?"

"If you're going after the collectors…no" Jason replied, looking Garrus in the eye. "You see, ever since they attacked Horizon this has become very personal" Shepard could see the Assassin clench and unclench his fist.

"So you're in?" she asked, holding out her hand.

"Definitely" Jason shook her hand, offering a slight smile as he did. "Now if you don't mind I'd like to get out of this stench" the Assassin continued, Shepard had only just figured his British tone out.

"Agreed, come on. This ship isn't going to stay together for long" as Shepard said this she could have sworn that Jason grunted his amusement.

* * *

The Normandy CIC was quiet now, seeing as the crew was no longer being sped towards a burning slave ship. Shepard wandered through the roomful of quiet conversation and hard work, she wondered how many of these people would make it back from this mission alive. Then she stopped wondering, mentally kicking herself, she couldn't afford to think like that when there was so much at stake. She was on her way to the briefing room, where Jason was waiting for her, he had only asked for a written, detailed brief so far.

Her walk through the armory earned Shepard a disapproving headshake from Jacob, which she noted to make a point about later. Upon entering the Briefing room she could see Jason leaning against the table and facing the wall, his head was bowed so she assumed he was reading. It turned out that he was, she stood across from him and cleared her throat.

"Ah, Commander" said Jason, still reading. "I've been reading over the brief you gave me" he added, still not taking his eyes off the data pad.

"Have you found your favorite bit yet?" Shepard asked, she leant against the wall opposite the Assassin.

"I can't judge until I've read the ending" he replied, looking up for the first time. "Although I do have to say that I'm exited".

"Oh?" Shepard left the question hanging in the air, she hadn't heard that one yet.

"I've never worked on anything so crucial before, of course, unless you count preventing the execution of an innocent couple" he smirked, Shepard got the impression that he was proud of what he did, but not quite up himself enough to be annoying.

"What was the case?" Shepard asked, she liked talking about things that didn't involve anyone dying.

"Well, you see the couple in question were framed for murdering a judge on earth" he paused for effect, "what was most intriguing about this was that the couple in question was also Turian, and had come to earth to extend relations between the two races further" Jason stood and started pacing the room. "Naturally, when the couple found out they were suspects they appealed to their government for help. They were denied" Jason looked round at Shepard, his eyes were a little brighter then they had been.

"Why?" Shepard had dealt with politicians before, but they were usually keen to defend their own.

"The Turian government wanted to improve relations as badly as the couple who were accused were. It would appear that they were abandoned to 'save face'" Jason spat, "however, I was contacted by a Human working as the couple's lawyer. They asked me to try and find the real murderer and bring them to justice, so I did".

"That simple?" Shepard asked.

"Indeed" Jason went back to leaning on the table, "I'm fairly competent Shepard, I can catch an everyday miscreant without much trouble" he smiled, and went back to reading again. Shepard shook her head and straightened up.

"Where should we put you?" Jason looked at her with a puzzled frown, "As in where would you like to spend your time aboard the ship?"

"Hmm, somewhere quiet, with a window" Jason counted off his preferences on his fingers.

"You could go in the observation lounge, it has a bar" Shepard offered.

"Ah, the bar has swayed me" Jason said with a nod, he stood, inclined his head, and left the room.


	2. Chapter 2-First time lucky

Jason was sat in the observation lounge, reading the same data pad again. He tended to do this, as he convinced himself that being cautious about what he was letting himself in for was better than going in blind. From what he could gather the end objective of the entire mission was to destroy the collector home world, or at least wipe the Collectors out and take back the colonists. Jason had been on several high-risk missions before, one of them for Cerberus, three more had been for private contractors on the Citadel. This, however, was in a league of its own, no forget leagues, planet of its own. He knew the collectors should be stopped, but this was crazy, he would have felt better if the plan was not based on theory so much as fact.

What he was more worried about was the ship they were on, if the collectors could just abduct entire colonies like that, they must have a massive ship. The Normandy was state of the art, sure, but it was relatively small and agile, a ship like the collectors must have would far outgun the small frigate. Also, he knew the collectors by reputation, they were a formidable foe to take on and certainly they would need some kind of advantage besides know where they lived, and they didn't even know that yet.

He sighed and put the data pad down, he was committed now at any rate, he would see the mission through. He had been going through his old Alliance drills in his head though, not the standard 'no firing from the hip stuff' but the Special operations stealth recon techniques. For an Assassin of his stature they were no problem to get to grips with, no doubt due to them being drilled in there by ruthless drill sergeants and even more ruthless field ops. He could remember his first assignment like it had only happened a day before, a mission on an unmapped world said to contain a group of Biotic extremists, he had gone in with a team of five other operatives. The mission was officially off books, but you could still find the mission rosters if you looked hard enough, and in the right places.

He was still pondering this when Shepard walked in, she wasn't wearing armor anymore, instead sporting Cerberus fatigues.

"You settling in alright?" She asked, perching on a bar stool across from him. Jason gave her an incredulous look.

"I've only been here a day, Commander. I can hardly see that as enough time to 'settle in', as you call it" he smiled and stood up.

"So what have you had time to do?" Shepard asked him as he walked past her and pulled a soda out of the fridge behind the bar.

"Getting myself 'acquainted' with the room" he made commas with his fingers when he said acquainted, Shepard raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? What does that mean?" she asked.

"Debugging this whole room from top to bottom…" he sipped the soda from the can "…you are full of questions, aren't you" he smiled again, then took another draught of soda.

"I'm just trying to get a read on how you operate, I guess" Shepard replied, leaning on her knees as Jason lent against the counter opposite next to her.

"Well, I operate by taking my time, being patient, and generally as quickly and quietly as possible" he said, somehow keeping a completely straight face. "More importantly I usually work alone" he continued, Shepard did look at him sideways then, puzzled.

"Alone? You don't cooperate with other Assassins?" She asked, Jason couldn't blame her, there was an unofficial rivalry between the Assassins on Illium.

"No, cooperation isn't necessary when one knows what they're doing" he replied, tipping his head back to look at the ceiling.

"Will that be a problem here?" Shepard was definitely full of questions.

"Absolutely not" Jason looked across at her, "I've read the mission brief Commander, there's no doing this by myself. I would say that making the Normandy a more formidable vessel would be a good idea too" he went back to looking at the ceiling again.

"Any ideas on how to do that?" Shepard asked, more questions.

"Not at the moment, no" Jason looked at his hand for a moment, clenching and unclenching his fist. "But If I do find anything you'll be the first to know". Shepard seemed satisfied with this answer, she nodded, smiled and stood up.

"I'll talk to you later" she said, and made her way towards the door.

"Certainly" replied Jason, tossing his now empty soda can into the trash can with complete ease. Once the door closed he allowed himself a deep breath, regaining his earlier composure. He didn't like being asked so many questions, he supposed he'd just have to get used to it now. He then went back to remembering all the different strategies he had been taught. He had noticed that the ship made a nice thrumming noise, it was quite calming actually. He was used to loud transport shuttles and public star ships, this frigate was almost silent in comparison. It helped him remember things, having a background noise to give his thoughts a baseline.

He carried on with his recall for a little while, making sure they all made sense in his head. If he was going to be part of team, he should know how to operate in one, after all. His gaze shifted to the large box that sat in the corner of the room, it was made of reinforced steel, and was heavy enough to require someone's help to lift. Jason went over to it and knelt before it, he slid his sleeve up a little to reveal a small pad strapped to his arm, he had never liked Omni-tools. He got this from a Salarian tech specialist from Sur'Kesh, it was called a Tac-pad, and was generally meant for Salarian STG operatives. Jason had repurposed it as he saw fit, adding functions to it that made it like an easier access Omni-tool, he had even programmed it to use overload. He pressed a few buttons and swiped his finger across the locking mechanism on the panel fixed to the front of the steel box. The box then slid open to reveal his arsenal of weaponry.

They were all folded up, meaning he could fit more inside it, and that meant that he had nearly all of his weapons in here. He picked up a particular one, it looked a little like an Avenger, but with a few key differences. The first difference was that it had a high powered scope attached to the top of it, along with a few different recoil dampeners, one was on the stock and one was on the bipod attached to the bottom of it. There was also a high velocity barrel on the front of the rifle, making the front of the gun about half a foot longer than it was originally. The final two adjustments were the fire rate, Jason had turned it down to a semi-automatic, and finally the firing had been made more efficient so the thermal clip would last longer, similar to a extended clip, but without the thousands of credits spent buying one.

He looked the rifle over for a minute, making sure it was all intact and clean, it needed to be clean. He liked cleaning his guns as much as tinkering with them, if he'd been a fighter pilot Jason had always reckoned that he would have been a tinkerer, he just liked making things better. He put the rifle away again, resolving that he'd use it later, and went to grab another soda.

* * *

**One day later...**

"Jason! Take the left flank! We can't push them back from the front!" Shepard was yelling at him over the rattle of Geth Plasma weapons. Jason had known that Geth was going to be a step outside his comfort zone, but he never anticipated this. The thing about fighting a networked intelligence, it seemed, was that they never seemed to care about loss of physical hardware, so no matter how many of them you killed, ten more would replace them. Jason spared little thought for this at the moment, he'd been asked to do something.

He was currently behind a fallen pillar, there was a shear five foot drop past that, the flanking route Shepard had pointed out was a hundred meters away from where he was now, which meant a sprint. Jason slid his Avenger hybrid onto his back, swapping it for the lighter Phalanx pistol, and then he leapt. He threw himself over the cover with enough force to bowl over an unsuspecting Geth soldier beyond it, Jason spared no time in putting a bullet through its optics. Then it was just a straight run to the ramp…

Apart from that five foot drop, Jason had completely forgotten about that, he lost his footing trying to stop, and then toppled over the edge. In the split second before he hit the ground he managed to twist so he landed on his side rather than his face, which might have seemed a good idea at the time, but the searing pain that raced up his arm afterwards said otherwise. Thankfully it didn't look broken, it was probably just bruised, Jason was too busy running through a torrent of gunfire to pay it much mind.

After dodging his way through the onslaught he found himself at the foot of the ramp that he was pretty sure led up to the balcony that ran the entire width of the open ground. He raised his pistol as he ascended the ramp, always watching the end, never taking his eyes away from it. He was lucky he never got complacent, when he had just reached the halfway point on the ramp, a single Geth unit span around the corner, its rifle had not been fired yet, according to Jason's visor, the barrel was cold. He didn't know what the Geth was intending to do with that rifle, and he didn't leave it with the chance to show him, he placed three shots into the Geth, on in the eye and two in the chest. Jason smiled slightly as it went down, he knew he'd probably have to kill that unit again at some point.

He reached the top of the ramp and took a look around the corner, the passage way was narrow and enclosed, way to tight for his rifle. Jason kept his pistol out and advanced down the passage way, flinching the barrel between the two sides of the end of the corridor. He reached the end and saw where the Geth were, there was one on the bridge, it looked like it had a rocket launcher, the rest were down below fighting Shepard and Garrus. Jason swapped weapons now, he swept his rifle scope across to the rocket trooper on the bridge, steadied himself…

The loud crack that sounded when he pulled the trigger drowned out the sounds of other weapons firing, the Geth was falling backwards off the bridge, its head a mess of cut wires and shrapnel. Jason had modified his Avenger hybrid to use explosive rounds, they were nasty pieces of work, and apparently great against Synthetics. Jason switched his attentions to the Geth in the courtyard, a few of them had tried to fire up at him, only to be cut down by the sharp eyed Turian across the way. Jason centered his scope on the nearest Geth, blowing a hole in its side with the bullet he sent its way. Shepard seemed to have caught on to Jason's support fire, she popped up from cover a little more often, tempting the Geth to do the same. Jason, with his forty round magazine, was having a field day with the Geth troops, he had more bullets than there were Geth. He picked them off with complete efficiency, not wasting around, and never putting more than one in any single Geth. He fired one last shot into the remaining Unit, its optics exploding into many different pieces and scattering in many different directions.

"No more targets" Garrus spoke down the comm. "You're going to have to tell what you did to that rifle Jason" the Turian added, Jason could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Trade secret, I'm afraid" Jason said, jumping down onto a low pillar and then to the floor. "If I told you, everyone would want to know…" he stated, watching Shepard approach.

"Nice work" she remarked, clapping him on the shoulder, "now let's keep moving".

"Ladies first" Jason quipped, fully expecting the slight to bite him in the ass later. Then he followed her towards the side passage way that led to the next area they needed to go through to get to Tali's signal, according to the blip on Jason's visor anyway.

* * *

The rest of the way to where Tali was holding out was pockmarked with squads of Geth, all of them as formidable as the last. Jason had been setting a smooth pace, carving through whole squads with his hybrid rifle. He had stopped counting the amount of times Garrus remarked on the creation, although it did feel good to have your work admired. They had reached a wounded Quarian captain about ten minutes ago, the red armored man had told them the situation. It appeared to Jason that Quarians were ambitious, but not as good at holding lines as Turians were, the captian was on the other side of the rocky opening to the door to Tali.

They had made their way across the right side of the opening, using the low walls as cover against the Colossus which was guarding the door, or trying to get rid of all the pesky organics so it could blast it open. At present they were working on taking down said colossus, which Garrus was reveling in.

"Ah!" he yelled, firing off fifteen odd rounds into the giant construct. "Just like old times Shepard!" he followed this up by throwing a small disc into the Armature's eye, the disk beeped and exploded in a shower of sparks.

"So 'old times' involved dodging Armature class Geth on a planet with a hyperactive sun?" Jason spoke while pouring rounds into the Colossus' underside, he was behind a pillar bellow Garrus and had a better view of the plasma guns mounted onto the sides of the thing's head. However this also meant that the colossus had a better shot on his own head, which was currently protected by a mnemonic visor and half an inch of bone.

"No" Shepard grunted when she had to avoid the eye cannon shot "we had a tank back then".

"Now, you see, a tank would have been helpful" Jason yelled, launching an overload programme at the eye cannon of the colossus while it was charging.

"Oh come on!" Garrus was still firing his Mattock relentlessly. "You don't need a tank to fight one of these, you humans have spines don't you?"

"I prefer to keep mine inside my back!" Jason shouted back, launching a grenade at the Large Geth to follow up the overload. He was appreciating the steady stream of rockets the Quarian Captain was launching into the colossus from the side.

"Can we just focus on killing this thing please?!" Shepard was getting the worst of the fire, the eye cannon seemed to like her.

"Oh" Jason had only just noticed this "right, watch and learn Turian!" he was putting his rifle away and switching to an axe before either of his team mates could protest. Then he threw a grenade over his cover, before vaulting over after the grenade, and then running at the armature. He heard Garrus yell something, but he was concentrating now, he ran right up the Armature's leg, using the joints in the armor to gain purchase. Then he was on top of the construct, he drove one of his axes into the Colossus' fluid pipes, sending the pale grey liquid gushing out around the wound. Jason wasn't watching though, he had drawn his other axe and was cutting the pipe leading to the center of the Colossus, it must have been the main power source, because no sooner had Jason cut it the colossus toppled over, taking him down with it.

Jason would have given himself a three out-of-ten on the landing, it was less than graceful, the colossus hit the ground fairly hard and he was thrown into the stone pillar next to it. At least it hadn't exploded, that would have been bad, he could hear the Quarian captain across the way shout something, but his chief concern was now him.

"Jason!" it was Garrus "you alive down there?" Jason couldn't pinpoint where the Turian was exactly, but he could tell it was close.

"Never better" Jason mumbled as he stood up, only now starting to feel the arm he had fallen on earlier. It was a dull, throbbing pain, not even nearly bad enough to be debilitating, but frequent enough to be annoying. Jason heard Garrus hurdle one of the armature's legs, heavy Turian boots thudding on the rock floor.

"Well" the Turian remarked, looking at the severed pipe Jason had cut to down the construct, "I've never seen it done like that before".

"Because" Jason retrieved his first axe from the top of the Geth, "nobody you've ever met before knows how to hold an axe" he smirked and holstered his remaining axe.

"This is true" Garrus conceded , then he pointed to the pipe Jason had cut last, "how did you know which pipes to cut?"

"I do my homework" he smirked at Garrus. He'd read countless reports on the Geth when he had found out he'd been chosen for this mission, most of them told him to 'kill the small ones before their shields regenerate' and 'run away from the big ones and wait for armored support'. It took a lot of digging to find the reports on where the weaknesses were, the ones that told him where to hit the armature with an axe that was almost guaranteed to kill it. There wasn't an exact one about axes but there were a couple that pointed him towards the pipes on the lower neck and central processor.

"Tali's in there" Shepard broke up the conversation, she was on the other side of the leg Garrus had hoped, "come on". The three of them set off in the general direction of the door, watching the still forms of the inactive Geth troopers as if they might decide to get up at any second. The door into Tali's stronghold was battered and marred by various weapon types, plasma rifles, rockets, gigantic eye cannons.

"Well" Jason ran a hand along the deepest grove, "this door must have been built to last" this was emphasized by the red interface on said door. Shepard walked up to it and looked at the red panel on the door, then she looked as if she had remembered something.

"Tali, it's us" she spoke into the intercom; through his earpiece Jason could hear some muffled shuffling.

"Right, door's unlocked" came the filtered reply, Jason was used to the filtered sound of intercom chatter, but the one that came through a Quarian's helmet was hard to get used to. The door then opened, the first thing that Jason thought when he saw the interior was that this Tali could handle herself. Dozens of Geth littered the floor, all of them sporting similar rends in their armored bodies, Jason identified them all as 'shotgun from less than ten yards'.

"Let me just finish this download" Jason looked towards where the voice had come from and was slightly taken aback when he found it, she was a lot smaller than he expected.

"Is that her?" He muttered sideways to Garrus, who huffed what a Turian might call a laugh.

"Staggering, right?" Garrus drawled in response. Shepard was approaching the slight Quarian, her step had evidently increased in pace. Jason knew that the other two had worked with Tali before, and it was evident in the way Shepard was walking towards her now.

"So" Jason had remembered something he had said earlier "do you remember what I said about Tali being useful?"

"Something like 'we'll see'?" Garrus turned his head to look at Jason, who grunted agreement.

"So far so good" the smaller human replied, nodding to the assembly of smashed Geth.

* * *

The four of them had gone back outside once Tali had explained what her and her team had been doing there, Jason wasn't an expert in Quarian body language, but he assumed she was mourning her team. The way she called some of them 'friends' was a strong statement in itself, Quarians were a very social people, and friends were always close and likely had been so from childhood.

At present they were waiting for the shuttle to come and pick them up, the other three were talking about what the others had been up to and 'have you seen Liara?' Jason was sat on a broken pillar a few feet away from them, in the shade of course, and was kicking the backs of his feet against the stone. When Tali had spoken about her team it had made him think about his old group of Assassins, the rivalry thing he'd told Shepard about earlier was partially true, but he didn't work in teams anymore because the last one he'd been in had been betrayed from the inside.

He had spent three years tracking the bastard down, three years of his life seeking closure for the murder of four of the best Assassins on Illium. He had been wrong to trust the Salarian, he had once heard a Krogan remark on how they had 'minds like a maze', and he understood the meaning now more than ever. He had tracked the traitor down on a Mars colony, where he'd been under the disguise of a Technician helping to get the environmental boosters online. When Jason had confronted him the Salarian had tried to kill him with a torque wrench, and when Jason had shot him in both knees and elbows the bastard had tried to beg for mercy. Jason had then shot him in both eyes to make a complete set of double wounds.

He looked up when he heard the shuttle land, for some reason the pilot had put it down in the sunlight, which made for an interesting boarding maneuver. Jason had come on last, jumping the low wall and dropping the second five foot drop of the day. This time he had landed better, and had boarded the shuttle before his shielding failed. The shielding was a new one for him, Shepard had insisted that he use it when she realized he only wore three pieces of armor. It had yet to save his life, but it had just stopped him from getting a nasty sunburn.

On the way back up to the Normandy the shuttle compartment was relatively quiet, it was as if his presence put the other three's conversation on hold. He wasn't insulted, he just felt ever so slightly alienated. He had never been a massive group conversationalist anyway, not even when he'd been a marine, he had always kept to reading books alone in the Barracks, the others had teased him at first, but he earned their respect by making sergeant faster than any of them, and that he was still proud of.

When the shuttle had docked back on the Normandy Shepard had asked Tali to go up to the briefing room on deck two while she debriefed Garrus and Jason.

"Well done" she said first "we managed to save two Quarians instead of one, which is always a good diary entry" then she looked at Jason, hard. "But if you ever pull a stunt like that again I will take those axes away from you" she said, then she lost the stern expression "unless you teach me how to do it". Jason only snorted in response, before moving away to get his armor off.

"We'll see".

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for the positive response to the first chapter, if anyone has any improvements they would like to see me make please leave a review! **


	3. Chapter 3-Collected interests

"Arrrgh!" the silence of the mess hall was broken by a load, Turian sounding yell. Jason looked up from the breakfast he hadn't been eating; he found it stunning that Alliance rations were still as god awful as they had been six years prior. It was the second time Garrus had flipped in two days, and last time someone had to go in and turn his terminal off and demand the enraged Turian went to sleep. According to some of the team members on the ship, Jason had been made aware that Garrus was not usually this dark. The more he thought about it the more Jason agreed that something was wrong with Garrus, even if he wasn't the typical Turian Jason knew what to look for. Jason heard a sigh off to his right, he hadn't noticed Shepard sit down, he supposed the Commander had to eat sometimes as well.

"He sounds cheerful" Jason remarked, dropping his spoon down into the bowl and standing up. Shepard fixed him with a stern look, "to soon?"

"He's been through a lot" she replied, Jason detected a subtle twang of sadness in her voice.

"He'll get over it" Jason reassured her, "I did". Shepard was still looking at him, when he said this, her eyebrow raised. Jason could tell from this look that a question was coming and, from experience of getting looks like that, he could tell that the question would be one he wasn't prepared to answer.

"I forgot to ask, someone like you must have…" for some reason she couldn't find the words, she was telling herself that it couldn't be all bad for Jason, and yet something was telling her it was.

"One great tale to tell?" Whatever the truth was, Jason still managed to put a smile on his face. It had been three weeks since he'd first been picked up, and these weeks Shepard had been rushing around the galaxy, giving the ground team some 'closure', as Jacob had aptly called it. Jason had been far from reclusive over this time, but he was far from the most talkative of the crew, Zaeed, Kasumi, and Garrus (usually) held that prize.

"Yeah" Shepard stood from her seat, "I should go and check on him" she said, motioning towards the door.

"Oh, of course" Jason gestured with his arms like he was allowing her to pass, "tell me if I need to hide in the shuttle" he said after her. When she was a little way away from him Jason picked up his bowl and went to drop it into the sink, Gardener would sort it out, as always. Jason wasn't sure why being the general handyman and the ships cook riled people up so much, back on some of his Alliance tours the cook was the Handyman, and the ship's medic.

As Jason turned to walk away from the sink he almost walked straight into someone, which was odd considering his usually exceptional spatial awareness. The person he walked into felt to him as if they were about to fall over backwards, so he grabbed the person's arm before they could hit the floor. Whoever it was issued a startled little squeak as his hand closed around their arm and pulled them back upwards. Jason then realized who he had walked into, it was Tali, the Quarian he had barely spoken to since she had come aboard. He was stunned she had managed to get so close without him noticing her, Garrus' description of her combat style put her far away from stealthy.

"Ah, Miss Zorah" he smiled at her, "I never had you pegged as a quiet one myself". He let go of her arm once he was certain she had retained her balance, he could never be sure with Quarians, they had those strange legs that made them look like they'd broken a knee.

"Sorry" the offending Quarian managed to sputter an apology, she appeared a little flustered by the whole ordeal. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you", Jason was struggling to keep track of her emotion. Not two seconds after she had sounded completely flustered, she had complete composure again, Quarians were an odd people.

"I know you meant no harm by it" Jason offered as some kind of acceptance, then he smiled and skirted around Tali, and then made his way back to the Observation lounge without a backwards glance.

* * *

As the day wore on Jason was made aware that Shepard had been asked to see the Illusive man, the absent founder of the entire mission. Jason had never had any feelings towards Mr. Illusive, he had never spoken to him, but he did know that he never failed to pay for a successful assignment. So far he had seemed honorable, but Jason never held final opinions of people, not anymore anyway.

After spending such a long amount of time doing very little on the Normandy Jason was eager to do something. He had taken to practicing his hand to hand combat with the Drell during periods of FTL travel. Thane was accomplished, that much was for certain, to fight so effectively with a terminal illness like his was nothing short of exceptional. Jason had struggled to keep up, Thane had set a fast pace with jabs and side punches which went against Jason's preference of 'get in his face and knock him out fast'.

Jason grunted to himself as he remembered the last sparring session the two had had, it had left him almost pinned against the wall because of Thane's relentless onslaught. Afterwards he had decided that he was a lot less accomplished in the field of hand-to-hand than he thought he was. At present, Jason was polishing his Black Widow, he had kept the rifle in this room for the entirety of his stay aboard the Normandy, he was certain that Shepard would be less than impressed about his possession of N7 Grade weaponry.

Sometimes he wondered why he bothered maintaining this rifle, he never used it, it would be better on a wall somewhere. Whenever he thought about that though, he remembered that one mission he'd had with it. He'd been asked to follow a group of Mercs about a planet until he could take their leader out without alerting the rest of the group. He'd been following them for a couple of days before the opportunity had presented itself, the leader had been urinating behind a clump of trees. The Widow hadn't even kicked when he shot it, and the bullet it fired went straight through the merc's shields and helmet. Jason smiled down at the gun, then he put it back in the case and locked the box, he didn't know why he locked it, maybe it was old habit born of caution.

It was at that moment that Shepard came over the intercom, "I need all team members in the briefing room" was her simple statement. Jason wasted no time in leaving the room, stopping only to pick up an apple to make up for his lack of breakfast. He met Garrus outside the elevator, the Turian was still fuming, Jason could tell by the dilated pupils and the shivering mandibles.

"Any idea what this is about?" Garrus surprised Jason by talking first.

"Well, the brief came from the man himself, so whatever it is, it's big" Jason heard Garrus grunt in some kind of response. The two of them stepped into the elevator and Jason pressed the button for deck two, Jason had never experienced the elevator on the original Normandy, but he'd heard this was quick in comparison. When the elevator doors opened they were faced with the CIC, the crew was just starting to get into full swing, filing numerous reports in Cerberus' typical clinical fashion. Garrus and Jason pressed through the mass, Jason doing so more gently than his Turian counterpart, until they reached the door through to the medical lab. Once through this door the way to the briefing room was uninterrupted by anyone, even Mordin was absent.

The Briefing room itself was packed full of Shepard's team members, the right side of the room was dominated by the Krogan, Grunt, who pushed almost everyone around the table to the left side of the room. Jason and Garrus stopped at the front of the table, opposite Shepard, who nodded at the two of them, Jason was till gnawing on his fruit.

"Let's get this started" Shepard said, placing her hands behind her back. "We're on our way to the Korlus system, what we should find there is a Collector ship" this last statement was accompanied by a loud laugh from Grunt.

"Ha! Hit 'em in the gut, I like this already" the Krogan bellowed, causing Tali to wince next to him, sensitive Auditory emulators screaming.

"Which is why I'm taking three of you into the ship" Shepard nodded, "Mordin, I need you to make sure Jason has the seeker swarm counter-measure synced to his…" she looked at the Assassin, who was still chewing his apple "…armor".

"Of course" Mordin replied, "see me in medical lab before departure" the doctor said towards Jason, who nodded, already understanding he was a part of this mission.

"Garrus, I'll need you to suit up as well" the Turian in question nodded, "Grunt? You're the wrecking ball, if we run into trouble feel free to kick them anywhere you feel appropriate" Grunt chuckled darkly to himself, possibly imagining all the different ways he could crush a Collector's head.

"Wait" Jacob had been quiet until now, "we're just going to board a Collector ship? Just like that?" he snapped his fingers.

"According to the Illusive man it was disabled by a Turian patrol" Shepard looked towards Garrus who shrugged.

"It's possible they hit a weak spot?" He offered, Jason wasn't convinced.

"Unlikely, I read those reports, how many Turians survived that encounter?"

"None" Shepard replied, this didn't ease Jason's suspicion.

"I would be on guard Commander" the Assassin concluded, taking another bite of Apple, which made him lose a lot of his seriousness.

"Noted, any other concerns?" Shepard asked, a few of the crew looked like they might have said something under different circumstances but they kept tight lipped now. "Good, meet me in the shuttle in four hours", with that the crew filed out, leaving Shepard to plan how they were going to go about the ship. One person hadn't left, Jason was still chewing his apple conspicuously, "that really isn't subtle" Shepard said without looking up from the briefing the Illusive man had sent her after their talk.

"I was aware" Jason said, he took an audible step towards the table and cleared his throat "Shepard, I need to ask a favor" now Shepard looked up.

"Sure, what's up?"

"This Collector ship, if it's the same one from Horizon, which I'm sure it will be, my Parents might be on board" his eyes bored into Shepard's like drills, he didn't even blink during the statement. Shepard was stunned he'd managed to keep his composure during the briefing, then she remembered what he'd said when she had picked him up from the pirate ship, 'since the collectors attacked Horizon this has become rather personal'.

"Your parents were on Horizon, weren't they?" Shepard was moving around the table while she put the question to him, she leaned on the table once she was on the same side as he was.

"Yes" Jason replied simply, "I read the reports on the abduction, I analyzed the Alliance reports on who was left, everyone was taken" his eyes had gone from their normal blue to a fire storm. "These bugs took my mother and father and I want to see them safe" he was leaning forward, Shepard noted that he was quiet intimidating when angry.

"I'll see what I can do" she replied, without really thinking, she would kick herself for that later. Jason merely nodded, turned an exited the room, Shepard couldn't figure out which was worse, Garrus' open anger towards Sidonis, or Jason's pent up anger towards their main enemy, the Assassin was like a time bomb that had just gone off. She shook her head in a vain attempt to get rid of the new frustration that this revelation had brought and went back to sorting her plan out.

* * *

"ETA 30 seconds" Joker spoke over the ship's intercom, the ground team was inside the shuttle, ready to go. Shepard looked about her team, Grunt looked like a child going to Disneyland, Garrus was checking his rifle and Jason was staring at the ground. Either it was nerves or anger that was causing it, Shepard couldn't tell, it was probably a mixture of both. She thought back to the view that they had just gotten of the Collector ship up close, it was huge, and didn't do much to disprove Jason's earlier doubts about it being taken out by a single Turian patrol.

As the hanger doors opened the shuttle launched, the team was made aware of this by the sudden jolt of movement that threw them all, apart from Grunt, forwards. The window allowed Shepard another view of the colossal vessel that the Normandy had just parked next to, Shepard could see Joker's little light trying to find a suitable boarding point.

"Commander, there's an opening near to where you are now, I'll patch you a bearing" Joker said over the comm. No sooner had he said this the shuttle jolted again, this time in an upwards arch that would have made a fighter pilot proud. Shepard would have congratulated the pilot had it not been an VI, this was another thing that she found unsettling about Cerberus, they relied on Vis and AIs way too much for a pro-human group. The shuttle then began to touch down, the thrusters mounted on the underside of the craft kicked in and slowed the decent down to 'not going to shatter your spine'. The door opened a second later, allowing Shepard and her team to get out, Garrus was the first on the ground, surprisingly followed by Grunt. Shepard jumped down at the same time as Jason, the two of them exchanged a look behind their helmets, Jason held his head steady beneath his helmet, which was an odd thing that looked like a recon hood with an Archon visor fitted instead of the standard eye holes.

Shepard looked away and started to step forwards, her foot made a strange scrunching noise as it hit the floor so she looked down. The floor of the corridor was a glass like material with some sort of…moss growing on the surface, it looked a lot like brown autumn leaves that had been stuck into some kind of hybrid pathway and thrown on the floor of the ship.

"I love what they've done with the place" Garrus said behind her, his voice dripping sarcasm.

"Huh, looks like a Rachni nest" Grunt replied, using his inbuilt knowledge to explain what he could see.

"Or an insect hive" Shepard countered, Jason remained silent. She looked back at him and could see the numbers and words scrolling behind his visor, his breathing was steady, at least. They pressed further into the ship, there was sections of pipe and coils of thick wiring hanging from the ceiling, some of the wires were connected to terminals built into the walls. Jason brought up his Omni-tool and scanned one of them.

"Looks like an Amp schematic" Jason held the screen out for Shepard to see, as he turned around though he saw something behind her. "My word...Shepard, behind you" he closed his Omni-tool off while he pointed. Shepard turned quickly and unfolded her Phalanx, pointing it where Jason had indicated, it didn't take long for her to see what he'd been pointing at. There was a pile of something next to a ledge about a hundred meters from where they were standing, what Shepard failed to see was what Jason's interface was telling him. Without a word he took off at a sprint towards the pile, leaving the other three behind him in a sort of confused daze, it took Shepard a few seconds to realize what was going on.

She then followed him, not as fast but fast enough to close the gap between them and him relatively quickly. When she reached him he was staring at the pile, not moving a muscle, Shepard looked down at the pile. She instantly felt bile rising up her throat, what she saw was the back of a hardsuit of armor, a face, bloodied clothing, tangled limbs. She was looking at a pile of human corpses, and then she realized why Jason wasn't moving. She looked round at him, he still hadn't moved, she wondered whether he had recognized any of the faces in the pile.

"Jason…" she tried to find some words to calm him down, it was too late that she realized that this was a bad idea.

"Save it" he growled, then he sighed and slumped. "I don't know what's the worst thing to think, that they might not be in this pile, and they're still alive somewhere, or that they are in this pile, and I'll never see them again" he took a few breaths.

"I'm sorry" Shepard placed a hand on his shoulder, she was surprised that he didn't flinch and try to move away.

"Don't be" he replied, looking round at her now, she could only imagine what his expression was like. "You didn't kill them" he stared down at the bodies one more time, and then moved away. Shepard didn't waste time in following him, the smell was starting to get into her helmet, there was another console ahead that Jason had stopped at.

"What's on this one?" She asked, stopping next to him.

"Not sure" he said, Shepard noticed he wasn't looking at the console. "I'm more interested in what's in there" he pointed to a stasis pod that was sitting on a table to his right, inside it was a collector drone, seemingly dead. The four of them looked down at the Collector with various expressions, not that any of them knew what they others' were.

"They're experimenting on one of their own?" Garrus' sub-harmonics were outlined by disgust, cluing the team in as to what his expression might have looked like.

"Well, at least they used a dead one" Jason sounded incredulous to the whole thing, like he'd stopped caring so much. Then he was scanning the console with his Omni-tool, "EDI I'm sending their results to you".

"Received" the AI chirped.

"Any idea what they were doing?" Shepard asked, standing over the innate collector.

"I have no hypothesis on their motives, but I do have their preliminary results…they reveal something remarkable" for an AI EDI was emitting an awful amount of awe in her voice. "I have cross referenced the DNA strands recorded in this data with known strands from other species, Shepard" EDI spoke directly to the Commander "it matches the samples taken from ancient ruins".

"What does that mean EDI?" Shepard sounded frustrated at the AI's expectancy for everyone to be on the same page as her. Jason was on that page, he looked down at the collector again and quickly back to Shepard.

"She's saying that this is a Prothean" he went back to the pod and looked again, the collector was still there, Jason was half expecting it to jump up and gun them all down.

"Correct" EDI spoke again, Shepard had recoiled from the pod.

"So they didn't disappear?" Garrus moved to stand next to Jason, his voice took on a small amount of wonderment at the revelation.

"This is no longer a Prothean" EDI brutally killed his revelry, "the DNA shows signs of extensive genetic rewrite, it is likely that these are the equivalent of husks".

"So the Reapers enslaved them?" Shepard was still by the console, trying to put as much distance between her and the pod as possible.

"That is a sound theory…" EDI almost sounded taken back by the question.

"Then we're doing them a favor by killing them", Shepard had made her mind up.

"Sounds good to me" Grunt finally threw his input into the conversation. With that the four began to make their way towards the end of the corridor they were in, the walls were all as dark and dank as before. Shepard was drawing near to a pile of weapons on the floor when an inhuman scream came from somewhere ahead of them, the squad froze with weapons pointed towards the source.

"That sounded cheerful, what on earth was it?" Jason was at the front of the group now, holding his Vindicator rifle ahead of him.

"I don't know…" Shepard drew up next to him, pointing her own gun in the same direction.

"It can't have been close" Garrus spoke from the back, his sniper more suited to ranged encounters. "With corridors this quiet that could have been on the other side of the ship" Jason wanted nothing more than to agree with him, but his stomach was still churning.

"Hey" Grunt was typically at the pile of weapons, he was holding a huge shotgun in his better hand. "I always wanted one of these" he was holding a Claymore, the shotgun designed by a Krogan to be used by a Krogan.

"How am I not surprised?" Garrus was checking the pile too; "Aha!" he pulled out a mean looking sniper rifle.

"M98 Widow" Jason said over his shoulder, "that thing can take the plating off tanks".

"And I'm using it to kill giant bugs" the Turian retorted, sighting the rifle in on a nearby console.

"Can we not call them that?" Shepard said from next to Jason, "the Rachni were bad enough" she didn't like bugs.

"Oh don't tell me you're afraid of bugs?!" Jason was doing a really bad job of masking his amusement at Shepard's expense.

"What? I'm afraid of the giant kinds of bugs that only get mad when you shoot them" she countered, Jason was chuckling now, his rifle was shaking against his shoulder as he kept it leveled down the corridor.

"Yeah, but if you shoot them in the right places with the right guns they go down pretty fast" Garrus joined in.

"Can it Vakarian" Shepard shot back, Garrus only snorted in response.

"He has a point though" Jason pressed, lowering his rifle and turning to face her.

"Alright you two" Shepard held her hand up to stop them, she had just remembered where she was standing, or rather what she was standing inside. "There has to be an access console close by" she was already moving when she finished the statement, Jason was walking next to her with the other two behind. The corridor started to take on a steep incline, there were knee height walls that jutted out of the walls that closely resembled tree stumps. It was because of these walls that Jason and Shepard drew ahead of the other two a little more, the two of them hadn't noticed yet though and the room they were entering was taking up Shepard's full attention.

"Well, that's..." Jason was looking all around, there were stasis pods lining the walls. That in itself didn't sound so bad, but what might make it sound worse was the fact that this chamber was a kilometer across and another one high, Jason couldn't guess how long it was. Garrus and Grunt were exiting the corridor behind them now, both of them following Jason's gaze around the room.

"They could take every colonist in the Terminus systems and still not have enough to fill these pods" Garrus stated, Jason hated how right he was.

"They're going to target Earth…" Shepard said quietly, the revelation still sent shock waves between the four team members.

"How many more of these pods will there be on the homeworld though?" Jason asked, still looking around the room.

"Enough for every species in the galaxy" Garrus dropped the second bombshell, Shepard inhaled a sharp breath.

"So?" Grunt said, everyone else turned to look at him, "I'm not giving 'em the chance to find how many Krogan they could fit in those pods" the big Krogan rumbled, Jason smiled under his helmet.

"You know, I actually agree with that" Garrus said sarcastically, Jason nodded at Grunt by way of response.

"Well" Shepard began, "that settles that then, come on" she said and began walking towards the end of the path they were on. The path was another glass affair, meaning that the team could see that more pods were underneath the walkway as well, Jason was trying to decide whether that or the drop was more terrifying. As they rounded the last corner in the path a platform with a green console came into view, around it were several empty tubes. She and the rest of the team made their way towards the console, checking corners and watching behind them.

"EDI, I'm at the console" Shepard spoke while loading up her Omni-tool, tapping a few keys.

"You will need to link the console to the Normandy so that I can mine for data on the relay, Shepard" EDI said, not two seconds later the AI's glowing form popped up on the face of the terminal. "Thank you, I will now begin the data mine" it said, then disappeared from view.

"Does anyone else find it creepy when it says 'thank you'?" Jason said under his breath, Shepard huffed a laugh and peered around the chamber again…

Then the platform jolted and the radio blared in Shepard's ears, Jason gave a startled yell as he was thrown off the edge of the platform. Joker was muttering every curse he knew down the radio, giving Shepard even more cause for concern.

"What just happened?" she spoke with urgency born of worry.

"Major power surge, everything went dark but we're back up now" Joker said, Shepard could hear the pilot fiddling with his flight console.

"I managed to divert the overload to non-critical systems" EDI added, answering Shepard's next question. Then the platform lurched again and the tubes the team had seen earlier made loud cracking noises, admitting what looked like data into the glass panels. Jason was still off the platform, scanning the room with his rifle barrel as well as his eyes, he could have sworn he'd seen a dark shape bolt across the gap between two of the tubes.

"Shepard…" he said with unmasked urgency, Shepard seemed to pick up on this and lifted a finger to her ear.

"What did you find in the data?" she asked, more than aware of the noises emanating from the corridor behind them.

"I found data relating to how to successfully navigate the Omega 4 relay" the AI replied, she sounded as if this wasn't the most important find though. "I have also found the Turian distress signal that lured us here".

"The collectors sent it?" Garrus said, walking over to the console.

"Turian distress signals carry secondary encoding, this is corrupted in this message" EDI replied, Shepard reckoned the AI would sound tried if she was capable of sounding so.

"So the Collectors wrote it and sent it?" Jason asked, he was on top of the ridge that surrounded the platform, searching for the dark shape he'd seen earlier.

"That is not my theory, there is no way that the Illusive man would have believed that this message was genuine" the AI paused, "he wrote it". Shepard slammed her hand into the console, and Garrus growled under his breath.

"He sprung a trap on his own people?" Jason called from the ridge, "That's just incredible" he finished with more than a hint of sarcasm.

"Let's stay focused" Shepard had regained her composure, "we can deal with this when we get out of here".

"I'll do more than 'deal with him'" Grunt said, sounding more sinister than he would have done usually.

"EDI, how can we get out of here?" Shepard asked, at that moment the platform lurched again and started to rise. Jason was on the other side of the ridge, he only saw the platform rise out of the corner of his eye. There was no time to get over there and jump on, he was being left behind.

* * *

"What on earth?" Jason said quietly, then he put a finger to his ear, "Shepard what's going on?"

"Get to the shuttle Jason!" Shepard yelled back over the noise the platform was making, "We'll find a way off and meet you there". Jason didn't even reply, he was already down from the ridge and running back the way they had come. He couldn't believe it had happened again, someone had betrayed his group, and this time there was much more at stake than the lives of a few Assassins. He cursed the Illusive man a few times as he ran, wanting nothing more than to throw his axe into the nearest enemy, Mr. Illusive was lucky that Jason didn't know where he was, otherwise he might have saved the axe for him.

Jason rounded the corner into the corridor they'd come up, with the slope, it was still clear of contacts so he but his rifle on his back so he could run faster. What he'd forgotten about was the knee high walls, the ones that jutted out of the walls at regular intervals all the way down the corridor. He managed to hurdle the first one, only just seeing it in time to jump, he was not so lucky with the second one, he landed an awkward amount of strides away from it and had no time to jump it, so he plowed into it. He yelled when his knees connected with the wall, he'd had no time to slow down either, he flipped over the wall and landed hard on his back, knocking his head against the floor as well. Jason stayed on the ground for a moment, the wind having been knocked out of him, he waited for the black spots in his vision and the ringing in his ears to clear. Once both of these had gone away he attempted to stand up, he was met with a searing pain flowing up his left leg.

Jason slumped back to the ground, groaning at the dull ache that replaced the previous agony. After a few minutes of heavy breathing he gritted his teeth and, cursing his carelessness, tried again with a little more success. Once he was on his feet he steadied himself by putting his hand against the wall he'd just fallen over, while he was supported he tested the bend in his knee, it seemed to be working properly, it just hurt a lot. So he started to walk back towards the shuttle again, he was limping quiet badly but he made good progress, what he was stunned to find was that he was not confronted at any point by collectors.

He was past the pile of corpses, which he avoided looking at, before he saw his first collector. There was actually a small group of them, maybe four or five standing at uneven distances apart. Jason took his Vindicator off his back and aimed it squarely at the nearest one's head, lining up the sights to what he'd been told would be a kill shot. The gun issued three loud cracks when he pulled the trigger, which went perfectly with the small jolt of pain that Jason felt as he braced himself on his bad knee. He would have preferred to have killed the Collectors quietly but there was no time, he had to take them quickly, and trying to do both would only lead to mistakes that he couldn't afford in his condition.

The first collector fell instantly, yellow liquid splattering against the wall behind it, Jason grimaced at the display, he had half expected the bugs to not bleed at all. He had to adjust quickly as the other four collectors were quick to react, lifting rifles in the direction of Jason before he could down another one, they all opened fire at the same time, forcing Jason into cover behind a nearby console.

The collectors kept up a torrent of fire, skimming the top of Jason's cover and slamming into the ground at his feet. This was a step out of his comfort zone, he wasn't used to prolonged firefights as he preferred a quick solution to his battles. He needed to act though, he knew roughly where the collectors were, in a line about thirty yards in front of him, based on this he made his decision.

Jason checked his shields, making sure they were full, then he threw himself out from behind his cover, rolling a good three meters before coming to a stop on his good knee. He brought his rifle around on the collectors, lining up his first shot quickly, he pulled the trigger and blew the first of the four away. That left three, Jason shifted his aim, pulling the trigger again and blowing the head off a second Collector. He was then forced to shift positions rather than his aim, the collectors had found their target again. He span around a concentrated bit of fire and hefted his rifle again, this time he shot a burst into the chest of one of the hostiles and then another into its head. That left one collector, Jason knew vaguely where it was but he couldn't see it down his sights, he went to aim at it but found the insect was right up in his face.

It swatted his rifle away, sending it over the edge of the platform. Before Jason could regain his composure the creature struck again, its claws tearing a chuck out of his chest armor but not meeting the skin. Jason used the creature's momentum to his advantage, as soon as it made contact with his chest piece he grabbed its arm and spun behind the creature's back. The collector made a pained screeching noise, and released its own rifle from its off hand, Jason then pushed the collector away, putting some distance between him and it. What he wasn't expecting was the speed that the creature turned back to face him, it was back on him before Jason had time to regain his balance, he had to block a fierce right hook aimed at his head and quickly dance around an attempt to grab his neck. Jason used this gap in the Collector's defense to his advantage, he drew an axe before the Collector could turn again and hacked at the thing's neck. The collector issued an even more pained cry this time, so Jason struck again, sticking the axe deep into the former Prothean's torso. The Collector staggered back a few feet, trying to rip the axe from its chest without much success, Jason had drawn his hand gun now, he put a bullet into its head before it had a chance to strike back.

Jason retrieved his axe from the collector, his breathing was elevated now, and his knee was throbbing from when he had thrown himself onto it. He took a breath and staggered onwards, hissing every time he put weight onto his knee. Eventually he made it back to the shuttle, he opened the door with his elbow while still looking back down the corridor. Once he was certain that he had not been followed he slumped down in one of the seats, rolling his trouser leg up to inspect his knee. He winced when he looked at it, he hadn't realized that it was bleeding, but bleeding it was. He slapped some Medi-gel onto it and sat back in his seat, watching the corridor and waiting for Shepard to come back.


End file.
